Exterior Painting Cost Calculator
Repainting the outside of a 2,000 square foot two-storey house runs about $6,603 in Atlanta with wood siding in normal condition — $5,387 to $7,819 — for 2,559 square feet of wall and 17.1 gallons. What decides the figure is not the size of the house but what the walls are made of: the same house is $5,146 on vinyl siding and $7,321 on stucco, because texture decides the gallons and the substrate decides the preparation.
Estimate the cost for your home
Estimated cost of painting the exterior
$6,663
typical · range $5,445 to $7,881 · 2,559 sq ft of wall, 3,199 effective · 17.1 gallons · 137 ft around · 83.5 trade hours
Labour priced at national wages. Enter a ZIP code to price it for your area. 41% of this figure comes from modelled material prices — each line shows its own uncertainty.
Priced from bls.gov Aug 2026how every line is sourced
The one input that changes the answer for you.
The most expensive to prepare by a wide margin — three times the hours of vinyl. Old paint has to be scraped back to sound material, bare wood sanded and primed, knots sealed so they do not bleed through, and every joint caulked. ⚠️ Even in fair condition that is as many hours as applying the paint, and on a wall where the old coat has failed it becomes the single largest line in the estimate. It is the whole reason two quotes for the same house can differ by thousands.
The usual state of a house due for repainting: paint failing on the sun-facing elevations, caulk split at joints, a little bare wood. The baseline this page prices.
Sound, ordinary, and what most houses get. Expect it to look good for the shorter end of a repaint cycle on a south-facing wall and longer on the shaded sides.
What the condition of the old paint is worth
| Sound — washing and spot priming | 73.7 h | $6,068 |
|---|---|---|
| Normal — some peeling and failed caulk | 83.5 h | $6,663 |
| Poor — extensive peeling or bare timber | 107.5 h | $8,069 |
$2,001 between a wall that needs washing and one that needs scraping — on the same house, with the same paint. ⚠️ How far to scrape back is a judgement rather than a measurement, which is why this is where two quotes diverge and why a quote should say in writing what it assumes here. If it does not, the assumption is the cheap one.
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The figure above is already calculated. Each step just makes it more yours, and you can stop at any of them.
The same house, five different walls
| Wall material | Extra surface | Gallons | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vinyl siding | — | 13.7 | 58.6 | $5,210 |
| Wood siding or clapboard | +25% | 17.1 | 83.5 | $6,663 |
| Fiber cement siding | +15% | 15.7 | 65.9 | $5,715 |
| Stucco | +75% | 23.9 | 87.4 | $7,380 |
| Brick or masonry | +60% | 21.9 | 81.3 | $6,932 |
Identical house, identical paint: 42% between vinyl siding and stucco, and it is two effects pulling the same way. Texture is real surface: a rough wall has far more of it than the plan says, so it drinks paint. And preparation is not the same job — vinyl gets washed, old wood gets scraped, sanded, knot-sealed and caulked, which is three times the hours. ⚠️ This is why a price per square foot quoted without naming the material tells you nothing, and why comparing your quote against a neighbour’s is only useful if the two houses are made of the same thing.
Why a second storey does not cost double
| Storeys | Wall height | Wall area | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9.5 ft | 1,728 | $4,431 |
| 2 | 19 ft | 2,559 | $6,663 |
| 3 | 28.5 ft | 3,195 | $9,372 |
Same 2,000 square feet of house, stacked differently: 50% more for two storeys and 112% for three — not double, and not the same. Two forces add up. A taller box has more envelope around the same volume, so there is genuinely more wall. And 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13) requires fall protection in residential work at 6 feet or more above lower levels: ⚠️ six feet, which even a single-storey house reaches at the eaves. Above that the equipment changes, it has to be moved elevation by elevation, and the whole job runs slower once it is up.
| Line item | Qty | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exterior paint — mid range exterior acryliceffective surface × 2 coats ÷ 375, when this grade is chosen | 17.1gallon | $821–$1,334 | estimated±24% |
| Primer and knot sealereffective surface × share needing primer ÷ 375 | 4.3gallon | $163–$353 | estimated±37% |
| Caulk, filler, masking and abrasives1 per job | 1each | $180–$640 | estimated±56% |
| Washing down the exteriorwall area × 0.0016 hours | 4.1hour | $180–$194 | sourced |
| Scraping, sanding, caulking and primingwall area × substrate hours × condition factor × lead factor | 28.1hour | $1,296–$1,392 | sourced |
| Applying two coatseffective surface × 0.0045 hours × 2 coats × lead factor | 28.8hour | $1,328–$1,427 | sourced |
| Trim, fascia, soffits and window casingseaves feet × 0.03 + windows × 0.6, × lead factor | 12.5hour | $576–$619 | sourced |
| Access equipment and fall protection — 2 storeys1 when the house has this many storeys | 1each | $460–$1,450 | estimated±52% |
| Erecting, moving and striking access equipment4, 10 or 18 hours by number of storeys | 10hour | $440–$473 | sourced |
| Total | $5,445–$7,881 | ±18% |
Where these numbers come from
- The same house, five different prices
- Indoors, everything is drywall and the price follows the surface. Outdoors it does not, and the reason is two effects pulling the same way. Texture is real surface — a rough stucco wall has far more of it than the plan shows, so it drinks paint; this model carries 75% more effective area on stucco than on vinyl. And preparation is not the same job at all: vinyl gets washed, while old wood gets scraped back to sound material, sanded, knot-sealed and caulked, which is three times the hours. Together that is 42% between the cheapest and dearest substrate on an identical house, $2,174 in money. ⚠️ Which is why a price per square foot quoted without naming the material tells you nothing at all, and why comparing your quote with a neighbour’s only helps if the two houses are made of the same thing.
- Six feet, and what it does to a second storey
Each employee engaged in residential construction activities 6 feet (1.8 m) or more above lower levels shall be protected by guardrail systems, safety net system, or personal fall arrest system
— that is 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13), and the number is six feet. A single-storey house already reaches it at the eaves, so there is no version of this job with no access equipment in it. Above that the equipment changes, it has to be erected and then moved elevation by elevation, and the whole job runs slower once it is up. Spread the same 2,000 square feet of house over one, two and three storeys and this model gives $4,405, $6,603 and $9,269 — 50% more for the second storey, not 100%. Part of that is not the equipment at all: a taller box has more envelope around the same volume, so there is genuinely more wall to paint — 1,728 square feet on one storey against 2,559 on two. Both effects are in the table, separately.- Painting brick is a decision you take once
- It can be done, it looks good, and it is close to irreversible. Removing paint from masonry later means abrasive blasting or chemical stripping across the whole elevation, and both damage the fired face of the brick — after which it absorbs water instead of shedding it, which is a maintenance problem rather than a cosmetic one. Done properly it needs a masonry primer and a breathable finish, because trapping moisture inside a brick wall lifts the paint off in sheets. ⚠️ The useful question before starting is which of two things you actually want: a different colour, or protection for brick that is failing. Only the second is a reason to paint masonry, and if it is the first, the cost of changing your mind in ten years is not on this page — it is a specialist restoration job, and it costs considerably more than the painting that caused it.
- Lead, gallons and wages
- Outdoors the federal lead threshold is
Minor repair and maintenance activities are activities … that disrupt 6 square feet or less of painted surface per room for interior activities or 20 square feet or less of painted surface for exterior activities
— twenty square feet outside rather than six inside — and a repaint passes it on the first elevation. Scraping the outside of a pre-1978 house is the highest-exposure job in domestic painting, which is why it takes a certified firm, sheeting held down around the whole perimeter and cleaning verification at the end: $6,603 becomes $8,354 on this model. The rule is at 40 CFR 745 subpart E, Residential Property Renovation, the programme at EPA, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program, the reason at CDC, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, and fall protection at 29 CFR 1926 Subpart M, Fall Protection (govinfo.gov), all retrieved 2026-08-23. Paint coverage of 350 to 400 square feet per gallon per coat is the manufacturers’ printed figure, not ours. Wages from BLS OEWS, May 2025, for painters and construction labourers, retrieved 2026-08-20, with benefit load from BLS ECEC. - Material prices
- Modelled estimates, not sourced prices. No public, machine-readable source of US residential material prices exists, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Each line carries its own uncertainty band. How we estimate them.
Contractor overhead and profit applied at 33–43% over direct cost. Data last reviewed 2026-08-23.
What this figure does not include
- Replacing rotten timber
- Scraping a wall reveals rot that nobody could see while quoting. It is a carpentry repair with its own price, and any quote that does not name what happens when rot turns up is not finished.
- Roofs, gutters and downpipes
- Painted or not, they are a separate trade and a separate decision. Gutter replacement has its own page here.
- Decks and fences
- Horizontal surfaces walked on and weathered from above wear differently and take a different product. Priced on the deck page rather than as part of the walls.
- Removing paint from brick
- The reason the brick warning on this page exists. Blasting or chemically stripping a masonry elevation is a specialist restoration job and it is far dearer than the painting that made it necessary.
- Lead testing or abatement
- The containment priced here is what a certified firm does while renovating. Testing for lead, and abatement — permanently removing it — are separate services.
- Stucco or masonry repair
- Filling hairline cracks before painting is preparation and is priced. Failed stucco, spalling brick or repointing are structural repairs that come first.
Questions people actually ask
How much should it cost to paint the exterior of a 2000 square foot house?
About $6,603 in Atlanta for a two-storey house with wood siding in normal condition, two coats of mid-range acrylic, trim included — $5,387 to $7,819. But the material of the walls moves that more than anything else you can choose: $5,146 on vinyl siding against $7,321 on stucco, a spread of 42% on an identical house. Single storey instead of two is $4,405. So a national average for "a 2,000 square foot house" is not a useful number, and a quote that does not name the substrate and the condition of the old paint has not priced anything yet.
How much paint for a 1000 sq ft house exterior?
About 8.3 gallons for a single-storey 1,000 square foot house — 1,244 square feet of wall, two coats, at 350 to 400 square feet per gallon per coat. That coverage is printed on the tin by the manufacturer. ⚠️ It assumes smooth sealed siding, and texture is the thing that breaks it: the same house in stucco has 25% more effective surface than in vinyl, because a rough wall genuinely has more area than the plan says. Add primer on top where the old paint has failed. Gallons are the one quantity on a painting quote you can verify afterwards, so it is worth working out yours before anybody arrives.
Why is exterior house painting so expensive?
Because most of it is not painting. On this house, applying two coats is 28.8 hours out of 83.5: the rest is washing, scraping, sanding, caulking, priming, and putting up and moving the access equipment. Two rules make the last part unavoidable. 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13) requires fall protection at 6 feet or more, which even a single-storey house reaches at the eaves. And in a pre-1978 house, scraping outside is the highest-exposure work in domestic painting, which takes this job from $6,603 to $8,354. The condition of the old paint alone is worth $2,006.
How much should it cost to paint a 1500 square foot house exterior?
About $5,918 in Atlanta on the same assumptions as our reference house — two storeys, wood siding, normal condition, trim included — using 14.8 gallons over 2,214 square feet of wall. That is 90% of the 2,000 square foot figure rather than 75%, because a smaller house still needs the same equipment put up and moved, and the perimeter does not shrink in proportion to the floor area. If your walls are vinyl or fiber cement rather than wood, take a substantial amount off; if they are stucco, add. The calculator does that comparison on your own numbers.
Taken from Google’s “people also ask” results for this search on 2026-08-23, not invented.
Other cost calculators
The first of these are the jobs closest to this one — the ones that turn up in the same quote, or instead of it.
- Drywall installation cost
A 1,500 square foot house takes about 6,000 square feet of board — four times its floor area. This works out the sheets, the hours and what the finish level really costs.
- Drywall repair cost
Prices repairs by patch and size class rather than by area, flags the six-square-foot federal threshold in pre-1978 houses, and shows the hourly rate behind the bill.
- Roof repair cost
Separates the fixed cost of getting a crew onto your roof from the repair itself, and finds the age at which repairing stops paying per year.
- Furnace replacement cost
Separates what a condensing furnace costs from what it forces you to build around it, including the chimney liner your water heater suddenly needs.
- The full exterior painting cost dataset
Every unit price, every quantity rule and the reasoning behind each estimate, as a plain table.
- How we calculate
The formula, the sources, and an honest account of which parts of the model are weak.